First Outing In Quite Some Time

After sitting on the couch for two weeks after meniscus surgery we had both had enough of it!

It’s still pretty painful for me to hobble around but Mark knew of several back country roads to drive that have beautiful water crossings.  We decided to get in the car for a little birding and to just get away for a morning. 

We found a nice quite road just a few miles from our house.  There are many low water crossings and with no traffic we were able to stop and sit in the car for as long as we wanted.

Our new house is still in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, just down the road from the RV resort where we had a lot for the last ten years. 

These folks might have a great view but I would not want to go up or down that driveway every day! 

This area is definitely farm land.  There are lots of open fields and some pretty amazing gates.

The main reason for our drive was to do a little birding.

This Eastern Phoebe was gathering nesting material from the edge of the river. Quite a mouthful!

We know that Spring has arrived when the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers show up along the fences. This is a nice male with a very long tail.  

Just down the fence line from the flycatcher was this Lark Sparrow. Sparrows in general are pretty plain birds, but Lark Sparrows have a distinct facial pattern. 

After an enjoyable morning drive, we headed into Bandera for lunch.  Mexican food, of course.

 

¿Qué Pasa? What’s Going On?

We’ve been hanging around the house, still upgrading and replacing various items.  A new refrigerator has been ordered and should be delivered in a couple of weeks, we’ve decided to replace the flooring in the kitchen, dining and laundry area. We’re waiting on an estimate for that.  And, we bought new outside doors and are waiting for them to be installed.  The doors are really cool.  More on that after installation.

The driveway is complete and only took two days.

Lots of new base.

Smoothing it out.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Nice and flat with even a drainage pipe at the road.

We got our first Covid shot.

Mark is playing a little disc golf.  We have a wonderful 18-hole course in our area.

We have spent many hours at our local native plant nursery just down the road.  So far we have put in 70 new plants and have a very long list of other plants to purchase.   As far as we can tell we didn’t lose any plants in the big freeze last month.

Mark built a trellis for a native passion flower vine.  We don't want the vine growing on the fence because the deer will eat everything they can from the outside.

We’ve added drip irrigation. 

Last week I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus.  I’m waiting for a referral to start physical therapy.

Before surgery they gave me some "free" socks.

After surgery - 

I don't know why they wrapped me up like a burrito!

We are really enjoying the new house and are looking forward to this coming spring and all the trees and flowers coming out.